Need for Speed™ Payback Review Summary

High-quality graphics and visuals: The game features impressive and realistic graphics, with detailed landscapes and visually appealing effects. Players appreciate the high-quality visuals and clean graphics, especially when using enhanced settings.

Engaging and enjoyable gameplay: The gameplay is described as fun and enjoyable, with a variety of modes and activities. Players find the arcade racing experience satisfying and entertaining.

Extensive car customization: The game offers a wide range of customization options for cars, including body kits and tuning. Players appreciate the depth of customization and the ability to improve and personalize their vehicles.

Variety of missions and activities: The game offers a diverse range of missions, races, and activities. Players enjoy the variety of challenges and the different racing disciplines available.

Improved handling and physics: The handling and physics, particularly for drifting, are praised for being responsive and satisfying. Players note the improved driving dynamics compared to previous versions.

Poor car physics and handling: Players frequently complain about the car physics, particularly in off-road races and drifting. The cars feel slow, fragile, and poorly optimized, with issues in handling and control.

Frustrating upgrade system: The upgrade system is widely criticized for being grindy, unrealistic, and frustrating. The card-based system for upgrades is particularly disliked.

Weak and unengaging story: The story is described as mediocre, childish, and unoriginal. It lacks depth and character development, making it skippable and forgettable.

Poor off-road race design: Off-road races are criticized for poor handling, lack of grip, and frustrating mechanics. The design and physics make these races difficult and uncontrolled.

Lack of police in free roam: Players note the absence of police in the open world, making free roam feel boring and less engaging.

Extensive car customization options: The game offers a wide range of car customization options, including performance modifications, visual upgrades, and extensive tuning. Players can modify their cars to suit different racing disciplines and personal preferences.

Engaging story and characters: The game includes a character-driven story with engaging narratives and a variety of characters. The story is divided into different types of races and involves various race types and vehicles.

Variety of gameplay modes: The game features a diverse set of gameplay modes, including sprint, circular races, drift competitions, drag races, time trials, off-road races, and SpeedCross. This variety ensures that players have multiple ways to enjoy the game.

Card-based upgrade system: The game features a card-based upgrade system where performance upgrades are tied to a randomized card system. This mechanic adds a layer of strategy and chance to car customization and progression.

Car categories and events: Cars are categorized into different types such as Race, Drift, Drag, Offroad, and Runner, each suited for specific events. This separation adds depth to the gameplay, requiring players to use different cars for different race types.

High graphics requirements: The game requires a good graphics card and has high system requirements.

Optimization praised and criticized: The game's optimization receives mixed feedback. Some players report good optimization and performance, while others experience issues.

Stable frame rates: The game rarely dips below 40fps and generally has stable performance.

Overheating issues: The game causes overheating issues on some PCs, leading to high temperatures and potential hardware damage.

Long loading times: Players report long loading times and performance issues, including a slow launcher.

Buy on sale: Many players recommend purchasing the game when it is on sale, suggesting it offers good value for money at a discounted price.

Recommended for racing fans: The game is frequently recommended for fans of racing games, particularly those who enjoy the Need for Speed series and arcade-style racing.

Worth trying despite flaws: Several reviews suggest that the game is worth trying despite some flaws, indicating that it has redeeming qualities that make it enjoyable.

Use a controller: Players recommend using a controller for the best gaming experience, suggesting that it enhances gameplay significantly.

Play on high difficulty: For the best experience, some players recommend setting the game to high difficulty, except for certain missions.

Community fair range: $3.00 - $8.00.

Game completion: 40.0h.

Story completion: 20.0h.

Session length: 2.0h.

Endgame: 10.0h.

Players generally find Need for Speed Payback fun initially due to its story and customization options, but the fun drops over time because of a grindy progression system and repetitive missions.

Reported time to anchor: 30m.

Grind-Loving Builder: Grinding for parts, detailed customization, and fine-tuning cars. Motivation: Building and fine-tuning cars. Stance: sale.

Casual Story Enjoyer: Casual racing, enjoying the story, and creative car tuning. Motivation: Enjoying the story and casual racing. Stance: deep sale.

Story-First Explorer: Focused on single-player story mode, enjoying the narrative and interactive story elements. Motivation: Experiencing the story and interactive elements. Stance: sale.

Steam Deck: The analysis of user feedback for the Steam Deck experience of the game reveals several key issues. The most significant barrier is the requirement to use the EA/Origin launcher, which users find frustrating and unnecessary. Additionally, there are notable problems with graphics settings, performance, and controller support. Despite these issues, some users have reported enjoyable experiences once they overcome the initial hurdles. The overall user experience is marred by these technical barriers, which require additional effort to resolve.

Monetization: The game has a significant issue with predatory monetization practices, including paid gacha/lootboxes, pay-to-win mechanics, day-1 DLC, and currency obfuscation. These practices frustrate players and encourage excessive spending to progress in the game.

Very Positive community rating: The game has received a 'Very Positive' rating from the community, indicating that a large majority of players have had a favorable experience with the game.

EA app requirement: The game requires the use of the EA app, which is a notable point for players who prefer other launchers or have had issues with EA's platform in the past.

Steam controller support note: There is an important note about the controls for wireless controllers specifically on Steam. This could impact players who use Steam's wireless controller functionality.

Rumors addressed: The developers have addressed various rumors including those about activation codes, graphic downgrades, pay-to-win mechanics, repetitive grinding, and the difficulty of AI-controlled cops.

Disclaimer on game length and language: There is a disclaimer mentioning that the game has relatively short hours of gameplay and may contain some English language errors.